India, Oz teams warned before Test series

Dubai: The International Cricket Council on Tuesday advised the captains of the India and Australia cricket teams through its match referee Chris Broad, to avoid making inappropriate and comments in the media.

The build up to the four-Test series has been a war-of-words from the two camps, with each one landing to land a psychological blow on the other. The latest in the series of exchanges came when Virender Sehwag indicated that the Australians had cheated them by claiming catches which were not clean on India's last tour to Australia earlier this year.

Ponting on Wednesday shot back saying he felt offended by Sehwag's claims that the Australians had cheated.

India-Australia Tests in the recent have generally been very competitive, but they've also had their fair share of controversies, ranging from the Sydney Test racism row, to Matthew Hayden calling Harbhajan Singh 'an obnoxious weed'.

An ICC press release confirmed that Broad, the match referee for the series, had told the team management to avoid such comments, and that the offending individual would be taken up to task as per the ICC's Code of Conduct.